7 Critical Steps to Website Translation
At present global businesses are paying great attention to social media marketing. In the Asia-Pacific region, the latest trend is social media influencers. Additionally, e-marketing is also running parallel to it. They both have increased the use of live streaming. If you check the insights of technicalities that are involved in marketing and social media platforms, then you will find that they are not all owned media. They are an amalgamation of earned plus paid media. There are some limitations on social media that how you display your content on these platforms which are text induction, URL addresses, and many more. Moreover, these platforms are not meant to be searched. Social media platforms are successful if they can engage people. However, selling with this platform is debatable. In this article, we will discuss the critical steps to website translation.
Why Websites are so Important?
Websites are the hub of digital marketing efforts for B2B businesses. They are the owned media. Therefore, you can control the website content in terms of what content and when to display it. Moreover, the form and volume of content that you want to share are also in your hand.
Websites are critically important for global businesses as they give leverage to search engines. People depend upon search engines to look for products and services that they want. The search engine comes up with the most relevant results related to your search. People tend to purchase products from websites more than on social media. However, certain rules are governing search engines that show the order and ranking of your website with the help of search engine algorithms. The quality and volume of your content, and how overwhelming your content is influencing the traffic on the website, and this in return improves the ranking of your site. This technique is called search engine optimization. Understanding all these things will ensure that your website is ready for launch, and it will get more traffic, leading to more sales.
Why It is Necessary to Translate Website into Multiple Languages
Customers opting to buy products and services from the website, which is in their native language. Therefore, if they are unable to understand the language, then they will not buy anything from it. Top-notch companies of the world are aware of this fact, so they translate websites into multiple languages. For instance, Microsoft has translated its website into 110 languages, Toyota has translated its languages into 75 languages and Google has translated it into 80 languages. No doubt that English is a universal language, however a study of the Asia Pacific region excluding Australia revealed that English as a universal language accounts only for 6.7% of the population.
If you go for factual study from other regions, then you will get to know that English is a primary language and the majority of the people around it use it. If you check from an SEO and website ranking point of view, it is very important to rank well in a single-speaking country, however, English websites don’t need to work well for other geographical regions. For example, an English website that is ranked at the top in Australia will not work properly for the Japanese target market because the Japanese target audience will search through Japanese terms. Businesses must develop and translate their website in such a way so that they can take leverage from global opportunities.
7 Essential Steps To follow when Translating your website
Translation of a website is a cumbersome task. This task is based on different factors and includes the involvement of different stockholders. For this difficult task, some companies hire a professional translation service. Let’s dive into the 7 essential steps for the translation of the website.
1. Translation Company Should Know the Built of the Website
The build of your website will determine the speed of the translation. Moreover, the structure of the site will make the translation company decide how to manage the content. There are many CMS platforms such as HubSpot, Drupal, and WordPress that have the feature of importing and export of data. Moreover, they also support multilingual plug-ins. If your website is built on HTML, then the translation company can translate raw source files. Moreover, if your website is using a translation proxy then when the foreign user lands on the page, the proxy helps to replace the source text with the translations that are present on a server. It is very important to know your site coding well. This will help the translation company to carry on with the translation process efficiently and cost-effectively.
2. Updating the Information on the Website
You must understand the update cycle of the website. Do you need to update the website frequently? How many times, do you need to translate your pages for updates? Who is responsible for multilingual pages? Do you do it by yourself or hire a translation company? If your website needs to be updated on a regular basis then map out your expectations and share them with the translation company. While keeping the translation company on board, you can make sure that appropriate resources are available for you.
3. Decide Which Pages to Translate
Sometimes, it is not necessary to translate all the pages of the website. This is because you must delete certain regions or cultural related content on foreign language sites. For this, you must review the entire site before going for professional translation services and identify which page requires translation.
4. The Content Should Resonate with the Target Market
You cannot use the same phrases and references for international markets. For instance, you cannot use the SSN or toll-free number outside the US market. If they are required, you must use other appropriate terms that are applicable in that market. You also need to decide which part of the information needs to be removed. It can be an entire section. Identifying such scenarios before translation will help you to come up with the new text and give assistance about how to handle such content.
5. Understanding the Expansion and Contraction of the Languages
You must know that during the translation process some texts expand while others contract. For example, languages like Spanish, German, and French occupy 30 to 40% more space on websites. If you are going for website translation, then make sure to inform your web developer and web designer about the issue beforehand. In this way, they can develop the site with enough space. If you use IDs for text styles or use classes, then it will help you in formatting. Ask your designer to show you the sample of the web with 30 to 40% space so that you can check how your translated content will be adjusted and what it will look like. Give attention to detail to call-to-action buttons. They may have limitations on word count, and you may need to rephrase the content.
6. Share SEO Keywords with the Translation Company
SEO search engine optimization is very important for your global site. Therefore, do tell the translation company that you want to immerse keywords in the content. For this, you can work with the SEO specialist to devise foreign language keywords. When the SEO keyword list is developed, then give this list to the translation company. SEO is very important in specific phrasing. It might be possible that your website translator uses SEO keywords in specific locations. For greater SEO value, they must be used in direct translation.
One of the reasons to hire a translation company for web content is that they can use SEO keywords in a customized manner that results in consistency in all translation web pages.
7. Decide What Other Things to Translate
Apart from content, websites also contain pictures. Many websites comprise videos, charts, and downloadable PDFs that don’t even require translation. In such cases, the translation company can give suggestions like removing text from the images to enhance flexibility. Discuss the website content with the translation company in detail so that they can provide you with affluent translation services at a fast turnaround time and economical rates.
Wrapping Up
With the emergence of evolving technology in our lives, there are many other technical aspects that you need to keep in mind while going for website translation services. While going global, translation must be kept in mind from the start of the development of the site. If you hire the right translation company, then technology assistance with linguistic skills will ease the difficulties of website translation. Professional translation companies employ a team of native translators that can provide you with seamless translation services while taking regional and cultural nuances in mind.
Investing in a translation company is a rational decision. Website is your first interaction with the customers. If it is not translated well, then you will lose potential customers. Moreover, it will damage your image in the international market. Be very vigilant in selecting a professional translation company so that you can show your business to the world in the language that they understand.
